Saturday, 26 April 2008

I feel guilty. Not only have I not posted in a while but my two last posts were non-wow posts. Can you imagine a big panther kitty hiding under the sofa looking guilty?In guild news today...Like a lot of guilds we're struggling to get regular 25-man raids together so we've been looking for a guild to run with. We've got a raid scheduled for Tuesday with Arcade Fire to see if we can work together. For some reason it's got me all silly like I was 13 again and going on a first date!I'd really like to go with kitty. She needs the badges and gear more than my priest but... and here is where I go all silly... I want to make a really good impression with Arcade Fire so I want to take the priest. She's better geared and I've healed Gruul several times before and know what I'm doing whereas I've never been there as dps or tank. I feel stupid for being like this but I guess we're all held ransom by our emotions sometimes.In gear news today...Kitty Ceera has been uber-lucky over the past week or two and picked up Gloves of Dexterous Manipulation, Primalstrike Vest and Shattered Sun Pendant of Might for her kitty set, Belt of Natural Power for both kitty and bear set and Boots of Natural Grace for da bear. She also finally dinged exalted with the Aldorks last night so I got to see a few procs from the pendant while doing the dailies.

It took me ages to find a crafter for the belt. It seems most people on Turalyon quit general and trade chat ages ago to dodge the spam. Then I tried the following in yell...Feral drood lady WLTM tall, handsome crafter of Belt of Natural Power for mutually beneficial relationship. Prepared to compromise on tall and handsome in exchange for GSOH.Within seconds I had two whispers from crafters with a sense of humour!There's still a lot of gear that Ceera needs though even without going near 25-mans but it's all drops and badge loot so I guess the epic rate will slow down for a bit now *sadface*In other news...Keera has dinged 70 which means I can't call her babyshamm anymore *very sadface*

When I saw this chess game yesterday I felt really sorry for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.The chess board shows the finishing position from a game between Mamedyarov and Peter Svidler from the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix currently being played in Baku.When I first saw it, I thought that Svidler must have resigned. Mamedyarov is a bishop and a knight ahead for a start and at grand master level a single pawn is enough to tip the odds.Added to which Mamedyarov has some nasty little threats he can unleash.For a start there is Bh6 trapping the black king in the corner. Black can't move his f pawn forward to release his king because of white's pawn on e5. And after moving his bishop white can bring his a rook across to d1 and force the exchange of rooks.Mamedyarov's other lovely move is Nf6 forking the black king and bishop but, more importantly, revealing an attack on black's a rook by the white bishop on f3. That's just a killer!But then I looked at white's king all the way up the board on a6 and I thought "wtf"! The last few moves of the game were 21... Bc8+ 22.Kb5 Bd7+ 23.Ka6 Bc8+ 24.Kb5 Bd7+ 25.Ka6 draw. In other words Svidler escaped with a draw by perpetual check. Mamedyarov's only way to avoid the perpetual check would be to move his king to b4 but then he would be checkmated by a5.Two pieces ahead with all those lovely threats just waiting and to have to draw the game. As the title says "Gutted!"